Castleford Tigers 14 Leeds Rhinos 8: Tigers get off the mark as dismal Rhinos fall flat

Tigers duly got their season up and running, at the fifth attempt, with a deserved 14-8 victory to end Rhinos’ two-game hot streak.

It was a real arm wrestle, on a heavy pitch and neither team got into top gear, but Castleford were the better side, in front of a crowd of 7,458 and only some missed chances prevented them winning by a greater margin.

Tigers, as was always going to be the case, were up for it right from the off and there were some crunching hits, none more so than Bureta Faraimo’s last-tackle monstering of Harry Newman.

Their confidence could have suffered when they went behind twice in the first-half, but they responded well on both occasions.

Leeds offered an attacking threat at times in the first 40 and, leading 8-6 at the interval, should have been able to go on with it, but a host of unforced errors meant they never built sustained pressure.

Rhinos went down the middle throughout the second period and on the one occasion they moved it wide, late on, Derrell OIlpherts knocked on.

Rhinos lost at the Jungle in similar circumstances even during their dominant era, but this loss - at a ground when St Helens and Wigan Warriors have already won comfortably this year - showed how far they still have to go to be anything other than a mid-table team.

It was tense, but there wasn’t a lot of flowing rugby. Rhinos missed an early chance, after a 40-20 kick from Blake Austin. They got a six-again, Rhyse Martin went for the line, was held and offloaded to Jarrod O’Connor, but he spilled the pass.

That was as close as either side got in the opening 17 minutes, until Leeds failed to deal with Jacob Miller’s kick on the last.

Jason Qareqare got the ball back and was tackled high by Olpherts; from the penalty, Paul McShane, Joe Westerman, Gareth Widdop and Greg Eden moved the ball quickly to Faraimo and he crossed at the corner.

The winger could have got another soon afterwards from a similar move, but dropped the ball with the line at his mercy. That might – and should – have been costly.

In the resulting set, Aidan Sezer bounced out of a big hit by Joe Westerman and offloaded to Cameron Smith, he supplied Austin and Richie Myler was in support to go in for a try out of nothing.

That was on 26 minutes and Martin’s conversion nosed Leeds in front, but Widdop levelled within five following a late tackle by James Bentley on Miller.

Inside the final five minutes of the half, Leeds twice turned down two points from a penalty in front of the posts.

Olpherts was trapped in possession on the last from the first; the second led to a goal line drop out which went into touch inside the 10.

Having looked a gift horse in the mouth twice, Rhinos took the two on the third occasion to go in at the break with a slender lead, though they would have been eight in front had Bentley taken Cameron Smith’s offload just short of the line.

Widdop sent a penalty wide early on the second-half and Myler produced a try-saving tackle on Miller when he broke through from the restart.

But Leeds’ errors meant they got bogged down in Tigers’ half and the hosts finally took advantage, after 57 minutes, when Faraimo zipped over for his second, from another Eden pass.

Widdop tagged on the extras from wide out and booted another penalty, following a ball steal by Cameron Smith, with 10 left.

Tigers received 10 penaltiers to Leeds’ six, the count being five-four in their favour before the interval.

The build up to the game was overshadowed by reports hooker Kruise Leeming, who was not selected, has asked to leave the club. O’Connor started at nine and played the first 65 minutes. When he was given a brief breather, Bentley went into acting-half.

Newman started for Leeds in the left-centre and was replaced at half-time by the recalled Luis Roberts, which was the pre-game plan.

Tigers, who lost Mahe Fonua to concussion in the first half, were forced into a late change when George Lawler withdrew and ex-Leeds prop Muizz Mustapha, who had been 18th man, replaced him in the starting side.

Rhinos’ reserve game against Tigers, scheduled for Saturday at the Jungle, has been switched to Stanningley on Friday (7pm).

Castleford Tigers: Eden, Faraimo, Broadbent, Fonua, Qareqare, Widdop, Miller, Lawler, McShane, Massey, Milner, Mellor, Westerman. Subs Edwards, D Smith, Matagi, Watts.

Leeds Rhinos: Myler, Olpherts, Macdonald, Newman, Fusitu’a, Austin, Sezer, Holroyd, O’Connor, Tetevano, McDonnell, Martin, C Smith. Subs Bentley, Lisone, Sangare, Roberts.

Referee: Aaron Moore (Wigan). Attendance: 7,458.